Billy Blue-Rocky Past Lead to a Rock Solid Future

With a past like his, you’d be Blue too. Billy Blue has suffered through the loss of his mother, being sent away by his father, only to be neglected and left to fend for himself by his aunt. Most people would get knocked down by these life experiences and not get back up. Not Billy Blue. He used this as motivation to create a life for himself. That’s when music stepped in and saved his life. Billy Blue has certainly made a significant turn-around and his future is much brighter than he could have ever imagined. With his debut album dropping this summer, Billy Blue will be introducing the world to a realness that we rarely get to witness. Not your typical down south rapper, Billy Blue brings vulnerability, humility and perseverance to the mic—a delicious concoction bound to leave you intoxicated.

-Danielle Young

Why is it that you don’t consider rapping as something you were destined to do?

I consider rapping what saved my life. You never know what you’re destined to do because at the time, I was going through so much crazy sh*t in my life—it just came to a point where I thought I would end up dying any given day. Rapping was something I just did. I didn’t do it because I really wanted to. I just did it to express myself. When I finally gave up, it just popped and saved me from what I was doing at the time.

What do you mean, when you finally gave up?

Every rapper meets that fork in the road where he is like, ‘This is just not doing it for me anymore. I’m trying and this sh*t ain’t going anywhere, so f*ck it. I’m going to go ahead and keep doing me.’ At the time, I was just doing it because it was something I could do. It was something easy to do. It wasn’t doing anything for me. It wasn’t giving me any money.  People liked the music, but it is what it is.

Do you consider yourself a rapper?

Like I said in one of my songs, ‘I just made mils off of thinking out loud.’ I’m just a normal dude. I rap, but I tell you how it is. I tell you what I experience. Basically, the things in my songs that I experience are what ever other person experiences. I try to let them know I’ve been through it all. I’ve been through as much drama as any [other] person has been through in life. Lord knows we all go through that bullsh*t stage that we don’t know how to overcome.

You have been through hell and high water in your life – especially in your younger years. You went into juve when you were 12. Those are formative years—so how did those three years you spent there shape you as a person and as an artist?

It actually was some of the most f*cked up years of my life. My mom died when I was 11. We moved to Miami and that was a time whenMiami was that f*cking place that you do not go. I went when I was vulnerable to everything. I was wide open. It was like, ‘What do you want to do today. Oh, let’s go shoot this n***a up or rob this house.’ At that age, when you’re that young with nobody to lean on, care for you, you tend to do the dumbest most ignorant sh*t in the world. When you grow older, you say you wish you never did that sh*t. I ended up just becoming a little thug and that led me to getting kicked out of the state of Florida. I didn’t even know that sh*t was possible! The judge was like, ‘Since you were born in New York, you can be New York’s problem. Get out of my state.’ I was so nonchalant… I ended up going to New York and I came with my Miami sh*t out there and within the first week that I ‘don’t give a f*ck’ attitude got me f*cked up. The judge asked my dad how long he wanted them to give me—how long they wanted to send me away and my dad told them 10 years. They were like, ‘That’s your son!’ So, he said, ‘give him five.’ I did three years and as soon as I got out at 9 a.m.—by 10 a.m., I was on a plane to Haiti. He just got rid of me.

What did the trip to Haiti do to you?

When we went to Haiti, it was the time they were trying to overthrow the White House so that sh*t was just another headache. My dad tricked me and told me that he was taking me back to Miami. I was like, are you serious? As soon as we got to the airport, all the people that were going to Florida were on the right and the people going to Haiti on the left. We’re sitting on the left and I was like, ‘that plane is going toMiami.’ He’s looking at me like, ‘Ok.’ We hop on the plan to Haiti and I was like, there is no Miami in Haiti. He slapped me for being smart. When I got there, [he] had [a] long speech, you know—‘You’re out of control. I don’t know what to do with you. Instead of you f*cking up my reputation in the States and being most wanted, I am going to send you here and let you do you.’ There was no electricity or water or anything there and he left me. There were times where I would wake up in the morning and there would be nothing but dead bodies on the street. Going to school, you see a n***a get shot right in front of you and you can’t say or do nothing about it. You just pray to God that you make it to another day. Mentally, I don’t know if it f*cked me up, but it made me realize that your life ain’t nothing if you don’t live it up. You better do as much as you can in those 24 hours you have in that day because just like that someone having a bad day can just take your sh*t away. It’s so crazy down there.

Did that move to Haiti help you change your life once you got back to the states?

Actually it did. I made me more humble. I’m like, ‘Man, y’all think y’all gangsters. I just seen the real gangsters and they don’t play.’ It helped me become a man. I knew that I had to hold my own. It’s ruthless. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. In the alphabet I’s come before you U’s, so you look out for yourself before anyone else first.

When you came back to Miami from Haiti, you tried to get an education and live right, but slipped back into that same fast paced lifestyle. What do you think it was that made you fall back into that?

I ended up dropping out in the 6^th grade before all of that. So, he pulled me out of school and education was just crazy. When you’re in Haiti, you’re trying to learn, speak Creole and all that crazy sh*t. Getting back to the States, I was just looking for that father figure. I tried to ask him if I could come back home, but he was like, ‘No, take your ass back to Miami. Since Miami made you like this, you go back there, since they know how to handle your ass.’ The f*cked up thing about it was, before I got kicked out of Miami, I was sleeping in the back yard at my aunt’s house. It was like one of those Cinderella stories. She could care less about me. The only thing she cared about was my mom’s social security checks she was getting. She did a n***a so dirty. That’s why I was so f*cked up in the mind. [He] sent me back to Miami to that same lady…I tried to get right, go to school and all that, but just being back with her, it was hard. She has two sons and they were gangster ass n***as on some next sh*t, so I would just follow them. One day I f*cked up and asked her about those checks and she wanted me out of her house. It’s my money! *he laughs* And there I was, back in the back yard, again. I told my dad that I couldn’t stay with that lady. I stayed in the back yard for a couple months, taking showers with hoses, same underwear, same clothes. I couldn’t do it. I had to do me. So, let’s break into cribs, let’s do what we do. I tried to get a 9-5 and at that age, you can’t find a good job…People were like, ‘Every time we see this n***a he’s up to no good. We ain’t hiring.’ And the little jobs I did get was the f*cked up jobs—working in the fish market, stuff that nobody wanted to do. I ended up just saying f*ck it. I’m going to do what I have to do.

You did manage to meet people that helped you with your music career. How did you end up getting signed with Poe Boy Entertainment?

Throughout all the crazy sh*t I was doing, one of my friends—Prince—wanted me to meet one of his friends. We used to drive around and freestyle. Them n***as used to act like they could rap and I would just do it because in Haiti that’s all we used to do. So, I used to just freestyle like it wasn’t nothing. He had a friend—which is my mentor—Ceelo. He introduced me to his friend around my destructive ages and he was like, ‘Dog, this little n***a can rap. I think we can do something with him.’ So, I didn’t take it serious. I went to the studio, did a little something, something and over the years I started getting good, but it wasn’t a priority to me. It was just something I wanted to do. It wasn’t putting money in my pockets…It just so happened I kept it going with him. Over the years, I came up with a single called “Ball Like a Dog,” and it ended up hitting all the strip clubs. I didn’t like it. That was around the time I said f*ck rap, it ain’t doing sh*t for me. One of my homeboys wanted me to come to the studio and I had this song bothering me in my head anyway. It was crazy.  The song was bothering me for days. I went to the studio and I told him how I wanted the beat to sound and I just started spitting…I let one of my homeboys hear it, DJ Ace, he played it in the strip club and people didn’t like it at first. The hoes were like, ‘No! What is he talking about! Turn it off!’ *he laughs* Then n***as started listening to the words and they were like, ‘hold on! That’s the sh*t right there! You heard what he said!?’ That’s when I knew people were listening to my lyrics. When you start listening, that’s what makes the song. That sh*t took off like a shot. I met a Poe Boy representative at this club called Coco’s. They played my song and the crowd was going crazy, the dude came and spoke to me. He let me know he was down with Poe Boy and I am looking at him like, ‘Who the f*ck is this? He tripping right now.’ He was persistent. He wouldn’t leave me alone. He called me everyday, [but] I ended up getting locked up…again. Once again Billy Blue lands in jail. It was a point in my life that I was getting locked up like every other week for n***a sh*t. *he laughs* I came out a month later, this mother f*cker was still calling me. So, finally I gave him a CD and he gave it to Big Chuck of Poe Boy. Big Chuck listened to it. It just so happened that they had a little spy at Poe Boy. The spy heard it and went to Slip-N-Slide and was like, ‘They got this dude. He blacker than a mother f*cker, but they got him. I think we can get him!’ *he laughs*  I ended up going to Slip-N-Slide that week. They both called me, f*cking with my good nature…Slip-N-Slide was talking that bullsh*t. No disrespect to them, they cool. I didn’t feel comfortable there. I went to Poe Boy and it was just love from the beginning, as soon as we walked in. They welcomed me home. It was crazy how that happened.

Your album is finally coming out this summer! What are we going to hear on your debut?

Everything – basically my whole life. It’s funny because when you go around the world, a lot of people don’t experience the things I talk about and a lot of n***as be feeling the way I feel. I want people to see I ain’t no n***a born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I’m just like you. I hustled to get somewhere. I didn’t know where I was going, but I [knew] I needed to get somewhere out of the situation I was already in. With the grace of God, I made it somewhere. I made it to this level right here. I want to tell people that we’re the same. You wake up everyday and you go to work, go on your lunch break, come back home, talk to your friends, go out with your boyfriend or whatever, but you’re just looking for that progression in your life. You want to progress because if you didn’t you would be doing this interview with me right now; you wouldn’t be who you are today. It is what it is. Just letting you know it’s that rags to riches story coming out!

Have you learned from your mistakes?

I’ve learned a lot. I learned I won’t be doing that sh*t no more. *he laughs*  That’s learning. Trust and believe though, there are a lot of a**holes in this rap game. I be looking like, ‘Man, what’s wrong with y’all dudes?’ They’re plastic or something. As long as none of them offbrand plastic n***as have nothing to say to me, I’m good, I’m happy. You’re never hear about me being in jail. I ain’t doing no diss record. F*ck all that. We’ll meet up like gentlemen. And if that don’t work, then we’ll handle it like gangsters.

What are you currently working on?

I got the mixtapes in the streets right now. One of them was hosted by DJ Obscene. The other one hosted by DJ Scream from Atlanta and that sh*t is next level. It’s really poppin’ right now. It’s called G Code. I’m working on my next mixtape called Black Team Music hosted by DJ Ace. I’m almost 60% done with my album. I am basically just working on any and everything that I can do to keep me out of these streets. I’m on it.

What do you prefer, mixtapes or studio albums?

I don’t know because the mixtapes I drop…are my beats. So, it’s liked I’ve dropped three albums already. To me, it’s just music. As hard as I come on mixtapes, I’m coming just as hard on the album. I’m going to keep it going so when they backtrack, they’ll be like, ‘This n***a had like 82 mixtapes in the streets…and his albums are just as hard as his mixtapes.’ There won’t be too much of a difference between my mixtapes and albums. Just harder beats, more real n***a sh*t, it’s just going to be on it. I’m going to keep it moving. What I learned is, these artists will drop mixtapes and when they drop them, it’s hot and they’ll come out with an album that’s garbage just because of the way they direct their album—trying to work for the radio [and] overseas and they ending up losing themselves. They forget who they [are]. They try to make the money so fast, they end up flopping. If you stay true to who you [are]…then people are going to f*ck with you regardless. Right now—watching my myspace—I see people from London and all that other crazy sh*t, telling me they love my music and want to do features and all that crazy sh*t. I’m like, do they even speak English over there? When you hood, you good. It is what it is, but you still be you and you still be true.

What’s next?

I don’t know, the world. I want to do more music. As long as there is a studio around, I’m happy… Let’s get this money. Let’s get what we want, what we strive for, what we want to do—you feel me… That’s what’s next, more Poe Boy sh*t.

Anything else you feel that you want to say as to fairly represent yourself?

Oh yeah, I got signed to Poe Boy/Konvict/Mosely/Interscope. Poe Boy, Konvict and Timbaland did joint venture and Interscope is the boss hog that’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ It’s a blessing man. As long as you keep on praying. I look in the mirror and tell myself, ‘Congratulations, n***a,’ everyday! *he laughs* The blessings of God and praying got me here. I used to just believe in God every time I got in trouble…A majority of people—when they get in some sh*t—they’re like, ‘Oh God, please don’t let this happen!’ I’m like, you ain’t prayed in like eight years, n***a! When’s the last time you been to church. I learned you can’t just believe in God when times are hard. You have to believe in God 24/7. You got to keep Him around and in your head, like—you’re my Saviour, my Protector and as long as you’re around me, I know ain’t nothing going to happen. A lot of n***as fail to realize that sh*t. Don’t wait until you go to jail to learn the whole d*mn Bible. Just because you believe in God doesn’t make you less of a gangster, just more of a man, more of a real person. I know there is something higher out there that can save me from whatever situations that come